Sam Hauser Is On Fire, And He Helped The Boston Celtics Torch The Indiana Pacers

BOSTON -- The life of a 3-point shooter is filled pinch highs and lows. The quality of nan changeable -- nan distance, nan defense, nan momentum of nan assemblage -- lends itself to a spot of streakiness. When nan changeable isn’t falling, for illustration during Sam Hauser’s November erstwhile he deed conscionable 19 of them during a 27.5% shooting slump, it tin beryllium easy to suffer confidence. 

“It happens to everybody passim each season,” Hauser said aft helping nan Celtics beat nan Pacers Wednesday nighttime astatine TD Garden. “You're going to deed it a low, you're going to beryllium connected a high. It's conscionable a matter of taking each time for what it is. Sometimes you want it to hap correct away, and it conscionable doesn't, and you conscionable sewage to support moving done it. That’s benignant of what it was this season, and now we're here.”

Here is January, wherever Hauser has hit 41 triples successful 4 less games than that frigid November stretch. Hauser is shooting 48.2% this month, but if we flip retired nan six he forced trying to drawback Marcus Smart’s record, we tin easy opportunity he’s shooting 52% connected real, flow-of-the-game 3-pointers.

Hauser is truthful basking correct now, he tin clear snowy driveways conscionable by opinionated successful nan mediate of them for a fewer minutes. 

“It opens everything up for us,” Neemias Queta said. “When you sewage a feline for illustration that, you sewage to hug up connected nan perimeter. You don't want to suffer him and springiness him a 3-poiners, otherwise, it’s money.”

Queta and Hauser person a spot of a symbiotic relationship. Hauser creates abstraction for Queta to rotation and drawback lobs, which forces nan defense to relationship for Queta connected early pick-and-roll plays, which successful move creates abstraction for Hauser to catch-and-shoot. 

“It starts pinch Neemi mounting a awesome screen,” Hauser said. “We person specified move shot handlers that they're capable to benignant of create an advantage moreover erstwhile nan screen’s not moreover there, which makes it easier for maine connected nan backmost extremity of nan play to get unfastened and get to space. But you conscionable benignant of person to set to it and effort to return what nan defense has fixed you astatine that infinitesimal successful time.”

Hauser continues to find awesome looks successful nan opponent’s protect schemes, but arsenic Joe Mazzulla ever insists connected pointing out, Hauser is not defined by 3-point shooting. 

“Sam's expertise to conscionable proceed to play two-way basketball, his expertise to take sides astatine a precocious level … and past it's him being capable to create 2-on-1s,” Mazzulla said. “He's evidently a threat because of his expertise to sprout nan ball, to create, 2-on-1s, whether it's pinch off-ball, whether it's pinch pick-and-roll. So I deliberation it's a in installments to our guys, uncovering him wrong our strategy to create those, and he makes shots for himself.” 

Some of those plays really travel erstwhile he steps wrong nan 3-point line, which doesn’t hap very often. He has taken 273 3-pointers and 36 2-pointers, but sometimes nan person shots tin travel pinch a small condiment connected them, for illustration erstwhile he near Pascal Siakam successful nan particulate precocious successful nan game.

Or sometimes he doesn’t person to sprout astatine all, for illustration erstwhile he recovered Queta for an easy dunk. 

“I cognize I'm tin of doing different things different than shooting nan 3,” Hauser said. “It's conscionable benignant of what I'm asked to do nan most, and that's benignant of really I started to get connected nan level successful Boston. I tried to tally pinch that and go arsenic awesome of a shooter arsenic I tin each and each day, and past besides building disconnected that. Which, nan adjacent shape to a changeable is simply a changeable clone and drive. So I cognize tin of it, and erstwhile it presents itself, I effort to return advantage.”

Hauser started slow, but now he seems to person settled into a very effective starting domiciled for nan Celtics. And while he’s tin of more, nan 3-point shooting is his number 1 privilege and nan remainder will travel disconnected of that. There will surely beryllium stretches wherever nan changeable goes distant for a small while, but Hauser knows it will ever extremity up coming back.  

“You conscionable effort to sprout each changeable for illustration you're going to make it and conscionable effort to beryllium process-oriented and not result-based,” he said. “If you're taking nan correct shots and you're shooting pinch confidence, sloppy of if it goes successful aliases not, you should beryllium happy pinch that. And that's what I effort to do passim nan game. Sometimes I'm not awesome astatine it and it gets to maine if I'm missing, but coming they were going in.”